Kudos to all the MLS professionals who sacrificed the “fun day” at the Clareity Executive Workshop and particiapted in an all day CMLS planning session instead.
Art Carter
James Harrison
Greg Manship
Mitch Skinner
Brian Larson
Monica Beck
Shelley Fowler
Richard Renton
Sarah Gillian Carlton
Rosemary Scardina
Cameron Paine
Kurt von Wasmuth
Carl DeMusz
Jay Gordon
Wes Wiggins
Kathy Condon
Lauren Hansen
Shelley Specchio
Cathy Holefelder
Marilyn Wilson
Amy Geddes
Okay. First a disclaimer. I heard this idea last night in the lobby bar of the Scottdale Plaza (where I’m attending Clareity’s MLS Executive Workshop). I was blown away when I heard the idea, but wanted to make sure when I sobered up that it was as good as I thought. As of this morning I like the idea even better.
First off I have to give the credit to this idea to John Holley (CEO of NTREIS). Our conversations last night were drifting towards how the next generation of buyers are far different from ones in the past. Everyone has heard about these “Millennials”, or Generation Y. Lots of blog ink has been spilled on the impact of these new types of consumers and how they might be a big part in a new “Renter Nation” movement.
John’s idea is simple (the best ones usually are). Why not have property portals/idx listing sites have a toggle. Flipped one way the toggle would let you show purchase price. Flipped the other direction is to show “Price per month” (monthly mortgage). See my crude mocks below, Based on REALTOR.com.
I think this is genius. I think it taps in to the mindset of these new consumers. Car companies are doing it all the time.
Listing portals/idx websites should begin implementing this now!
UPDATE #1: @rqd points out that sites like Zillow and Trulia have implemented something close to this for years. In search results and details pages they display mortgage information without a toggle. To me, and this is very subtle, the idea of a toggle is key.
UPDATE #2: After my initial post on this subject many of my readers sent me examples of their sites already doing this. None of them had a “toggle” but merely added the estimated amount along with other listing information. I clarified in my first update, that the “toggle”, in my opinion, was the magic. But another reader pointed out that this entire practice (toggle or no toggle), might be illegal. It seems that according to “MAP Rule”…
” It applies to all entities within the FTC’s jurisdiction that advertise mortgages – mortgage lenders, brokers, and servicers; real estate agents and brokers; advertising agencies; home builders; lead generators; rate aggregators; and others.”
To clarify the rule doesn’t say you can’t advertise/display monthly mortgage estimates, it has more to do with the record keeping requirements (24 months) if you do so. Part of me thinks that since the rule has been in effect since mid 2011 that it must have been vetted but I would strongly advise to have your attorney review this new rule. It appears to effect IDX sites, and most property portals. The fines could be as much as $16,000 per day. Yikes.
More information can be found at the below links (The first link is the best as it relates to brokers and agents):
How The New MAP Rule from the FTC Affects You By John Dolgetta, Esq. (PDF)
Mortgage Acts and Practices – Federal Trade Commission (PDF)
MAP-ing out new mortgage protections
FTC Issues New Rule Strengthening Consumer Protections Against Deceptive Mortgage Advertisements
“For the first time, more than 5,000 real estate professionals across Indiana – who formerly used 13 independent MLS systems – will now have unrestricted access to more than 750,000 real estate listings through LPS Paragon’s advanced capabilities. Newly formed Indiana Regional MLS (IRMLS) will collect from and distribute listing data to the 13 Realtor associations in Indiana, allowing members to search across multiple markets and pay only one MLS fee to access the IRMLS data.”
These deals are complicated (technology and politics) so a nice win for LPS.
And there’s this…
“Kendall said the participating associations worked collaboratively with industry consultant Kevin McQueen of Focus Forward Consulting Inc. and LPS to meet the challenge of a consolidation of this magnitude and achieve successful results. “In addition to combining the listing data information, the resulting cost efficiencies are going to provide members additional benefits, including public records information, appointment services and a consumer-facing website,” she said.”
Mark one on the score board as well for Kevin McQueen of Focus Forward Consulting.
Two CMLX Classes Offered in DC
“The goal of the CMLX program is to produce certified MLS Management specialists as recognized by the accreditation program of the Council of Multiple Listing Services. MLS Designation recipients will be recognized for their professional competencies based on continued and ongoing training, master of core knowledge and skills, and compliance with competency standards manifested in the knowledge assumptions and skill sets identified by professional peers.”
This has been a big request from CMLS members.
“If you look at the careers of great entrepreneurs and you look at the moment they took their plunge, the plunge is rarely a great financial or material risk, it’s a social risk. At the moment they started their new businesses, everyone around them said ‘you’re an idiot’.”
– Malclom Gladwell
via rusty
Update: Multiple Listing Service Requirements
“We recognize that listing status classifications may differ by locale and are subject to local or regional MLS requirements. Brokers should follow MLS requirements at all times. MLS statuses such as Back Up, Contingent or Pending may be acceptable. Ensuring that the listing remains on the MLS until an approval letter is issued will help you show that the property was on the open market.”
This is a bit wonky for Vendor Alley but I know its been causing quite a brouhaha with many MLS providers.
Thx Russ.
CoreLogic and Smarter Agent Announce Patent License Agreement
““We are pleased to have formalized a licensing agreement with a market leader like CoreLogic and look forward to working with them in the future,” said Smarter Agent CEO Brad Blumberg.
Ben Graboske, senior vice president of Real Estate and Financial Services for CoreLogic added, “We are always looking to provide the best, most innovative products to our customers and this agreement with Smarter Agent, enhances our ability to deliver on that promise and to provide mobile data solutions to our clients.”
As an independent software developer I have mixed feeling about software patents. But from the perspective of my previous post regarding “home grown” MLS systems you can see CoreLogic’s play here.
My thanks to Clareity Store for sponsoring Vendor Alley. This is from their site:
“The beauty of the Clareity Store is that it enables approved sellers to sell in every store in our system. Since Clariety is building new stores throughout 2013, sellers can rest assured they will receive maximum exposure to working real estate agents. The more stores you sell in, the more sales you will make.
The application process to become an approved seller is simple, and the terms are straightforward. The entire process is designed to take less than 48 hours to complete, including integration, testing and deployment.
As an approved seller, you will need to integrate with our single sign-on technology, so Clareity can sell and provision your product using the same user credentials agents already use to access their MLS.”
Sounds good to me!
Metrolist Selects Corelogic Matrix MLS System
“For more than 25 years, Metrolist developed and hosted its own proprietary MLS systems. “The pace of innovation has profoundly accelerated since the company was originally founded in 1984 and we found that a transition to a vendor-based product suite made a lot of sense,” commented Metrolist President and CEO, Kirby Slunaker. “We’re really here to empower our customers and help them drive their business success. Through this partnership with CoreLogic, we will be able to offer our customers a comprehensive set of tools that extend beyond the MLS platform and deliver on our service promise to Colorado Realtors®.”
This is old news of course, everyone knew Corelogic won the Metrolist contract. It appears their bundling strategy is working. When you have so many products to throw in with the deal it can make it difficult for other Vendors to compete. In a sense Matrix is the wheelbarrow that allows Corelogic to load up!
A few other things worth mentioning. The first, is what is not mentioned in the press release, Fusion. Pretty obvious that Fusion isn’t part of Corelogic’s long term future. Now you can see why Corelogic’s 30 million dollar acquisition of Tarasoft made sense. Can you imagine Corelogic without Matrix? Tempo and Fusion? Neither system will work both on an iPad or a Mac. Yuck.
The obvious thing here is the death of another “home grown” (I’m not sure I like this term, we should have something better) MLS system. Is this a trend? Yes, you can point to a quite a few “home grown” MLS systems that have converted to main stream MLS Vendors in the past several years. But you can also point to other MLS Providers who are “doing quite well thank you very much”. UtahRealEstate.com, and IRES MLS (just a bit down the road from Denver) just to mention a couple. RMLS in Portland also looks to be going strong despite their neighbor to the north, NWMLS (another Matrix account). So what’s the secret? How can some MLS providers thrive with their “home grown” MLS systems, and others cannot? Might be a good panel conversation for CMLS.
Despite all this, the facts remains clear, Corelogic’s strategy is working. Congrats to Ben and his team.
Update: David Charron reminds me of another “home grown” MLS provider, that is not only surviving but thriving, Annie Ives at TheMLS/CLAW.
